Comment by blackeyeblitzar
1 year ago
I didn’t find this article credible. It is arguing for small and medium businesses instead of startups, and offers steps to see the vision it paints. But startups are where some of the biggest game changing ideas come from. Large enterprises can sometimes do that too. I feel like the mid sized companies are often stagnant. The product areas it suggests for businesses are very hard to survive in.
These other lines sort of felt like an idealistic version of Germany:
> However, if you’ve ever used a product marked “Made in Germany,” you’ll understand what German culture truly values: mastery of a craft and uncompromising quality.
> They’re not the kind to release half-baked products and patch issues later
Anyone who has owned a German car knows the idea of German quality is a myth.
>> However, if you’ve ever used a product marked “Made in Germany,” you’ll understand what German culture truly values: mastery of a craft and uncompromising quality.
What is OP smoking? I have a Bosch oven, Gigaset DECT phone set and a Fujitsu Siemens laptop, all made in Germany and their quality is complete bottom of the barrel crap, totally the opposite of "craftsmanship and uncompromising quality".
Chinese companies blow them out water to the moon and back in UX and build quality. The quality of recent German cars is also nothing to write home about. Full of cheap and hollow sounding plastics including premium brands like Audi.
The "Made in Germany" sticker is a myth for consumer goods and electronics.
Are those actually still made in Germany? Siemens got sold looong ago, or at least their consumer facing parts, as far as i know.
Except maybe the Bosch oven is made in germany. But tbh I wouldn't buy a Bosch oven, in my corner of the world outside Germany they're known for good tools not kitchen appliances. My Bosch electric screwdriver is great :)
Yes they're still labeled Made in Germany. Although what exactly is made in Germany is unknown to me.
They might even just do the bare minimum for that compliance , and put together sloppily made Chinese made parts in a cardboard box in some warehouse in Germany and call that Made in Germany in order to get subsides from the German state for maintaining jobs in Germany.
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All of those are the opposite of Mittelstand. Those are old German megacorps, trying to do everything.
Where did I talk about the Mittelstand? I only addressed the issue of the modern "Made in Germany" consumer goods which tends to be an overhyped outdated trope that delivers overpriced and poor quality goods by today's standards.
It's oblivious most consumer goods are gonna come from very large companies since only those have the economies of scale to manufacture, sell and market internationally consumer goods at a profit.
Mittlestands mostly cater to niche products or local markets where there's less downward pressure for cost or upward pressure for innovation by international competition.
German car companies aren’t really the type of company they’re talking about, though, because they are usually larger. They are more referring to smaller (comparatively) companies that tend to sell tools, parts, and that sort of thing.
Most people don't want a mass of game changers.
They want durabilty and reliabilty.
Durability and reliability on consumer products doesn't make you a lot of money. See consumer Sennheiser headphones. Hence why they divested the business because they weren't making much money compared to the ewaste Bluetooth earbud manufacturers.
Turns out if you make products that last forever, you end up with less sales in the long run putting you out of business when your customer base values the c convenience of cheap modern ewaste versus pricey things that last forever.
I own a Mercedes w124 Diesel from 1990. It is not a myth, but it died in the early 1990s.
But that's the point of the article, no? In German culture we don't have this drive of "biggest game changing ideas". I do agree with the "Made in Germany" remark being more of glorification.
"startups are where some of the biggest game changing ideas come from"
I think the original author's point is precisely that it's not necessary to have big, game-changing ideas to have a working, stable economy. It may, in fact, be better to have many small companies doing small, sustainable things, than to have a few startups doing things that have a huge upside if they work out, but also a huge risk of failure.
In Western democracies, small and mid-sized companies usually make up around 99% of companies, and around 70% of jobs, but in software, there's a huge focus on FAANG-type companies and unicorn startups. It might be better for Germany to focus on building a healthy economy of small companies, rather than trying to compete with Silicon Valley.